


make like bob ross

by thehowlingcommandos



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Art Gallery AU, Becca Barnes is a Supportive Sister, Bucky Barnes Knows Nothing About Art, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Loves Art, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25168837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehowlingcommandos/pseuds/thehowlingcommandos
Summary: in which Bucky Barnes hates art, gets dragged to an art gallery by his sister, meets Steve Rogers, and realises he may not hate art as much as he thought.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82





	make like bob ross

**Author's Note:**

> so, this is my first story on ao3!! i honestly don't know how much I'll post stories on here, inspiration, unfortunately, does not hit me very often.

In all 24 years of Bucky Barnes’ life, he had never once shown an interest in art. It was his least favourite subject in school and he’d always struggle with staying awake throughout the class. It wasn’t his fault, really, he just had no interest in learning how long it took Leonardo Da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa. He didn’t understand when that kind of information would be needed in everyday life.

So, it was obviously not his idea to go to an art gallery on a Sunday afternoon, while he could have been binging Gilmore Girls, (He was totally team Jess). His younger sister, Becca, who was the bane of his existence, however, loved all things to do with art and painting.

And that’s how he found himself staring at a painting that he thought vaguely resembled a whale, though according to the information template beside it, it was meant to be a mother and her child. Yeah, he was pretty sure that was just a deformed whale. Becca insisted it was, in fact, a garden, just a surrealist’s take on one. Whatever the hell that meant.

The next painting was no better.  
“Okay, that is definitely a squid!” He said, staring at the painting of the ‘squid’ incredulously.

“That’s not a squid! And why do you think all of these paintings are sea creatures? Do you have a fish fetish or something?” Becca mocked.

“First off, ew? , Secondly, whales are technically mammals and a squid is a cephalopod, so neither of them are actually fish,” Bucky said indignantly.

Becca smirked. “The fact that you know that pretty much proves you have a fish fetish,” She said as she walked to the next painting. 

“Remind me why we’re here again?” 

“I have an assignment to do about my local gallery, and mom wants us to spend more ‘quality time’ with each other,”

“We spend plenty of quality time together!”

“Calling me at 3 am because you’re crying over ‘P.S I love you’ doesn’t count as quality time, Bucky,”

Becca occupied herself by jotting down little notes in her notebook, so Bucky found himself ambling over to a strange looking painting. It was a mix of loads of different types of blues, with a bit of red thrown in.

“What do you think the artist is trying to portray?” He heard a voice ask beside him.

He looked to his left to see a blond guy. Okay, guy was an understatement, this man looked like he was straight out of a big blockbuster action movie, where all the guys are stupidly hot and muscly. He looked about Bucky’s age, had short, blond hair and bright, blue eyes.

Bucky cleared his throat.  
“Eh…looks kinda like a mop to me,” He offered.

The guy chuckled. Okay, come on, who’s laugh is that hot?

“What do you think?” He asked the guy in return.

“I think it’s supposed to portray some kind of emotion, maybe sadness? But the red in there makes me think there’s a bit of anger as well,” The mystery man replied.

Well damn, not only hotter than hell, but also smart as hell. And Bucky had just made himself look like a raging idiot. Whoops. But what’s new?

“I’m Steve, by the way,” He said, holding his hand out.

“Bucky,” He grinned, shaking the blonde’s hand. Steve's face went red, and he cleared his throat and looked back at the painting.

Wait, had hot guy- steve- just blushed? Or, to rephrase that, had Bucky just made Steve blush?

“I heard you talking to your sister,” Steve began. “If it’s any consolation, I cry whenever I watch P.S I love you as well. It’s one of my favourite movies. That’s partly because of the fact that Gerard Butler’s hot though.” Steve rambled.

Bucky’s brain was about to explode. Could this guy get any more perfect?

“I don’t know about Gerard Butler, although I am a sucker for an Irish accent.”   
Steve grinned at him.

Yes, grinned at him. Bucky was going to die. On his tombstone it would say ‘died because some hot blond named Steve smiled at him.’ You know what? He wouldn’t even mind if it said that.

“I was also impressed by your knowledge on, eh, mammals and cephalopods,” Steve winked.

Wait, was Steve flirting with him? Like, on purpose?

“Yeah, well I like to keep up with the…trends?” Why the hell did he say that out loud. Keeping up with the trends? Oh god.

“The fish fetish part isn’t true, by the way,” Bucky added, hoping he’d saved himself from the embarrassment of his last sentence.

Steve laughed, and all Bucky could think about was how his laugh sounded like sunshine. That was actually a pretty good representation of Steve, because everything about him seemed bright and happy.

“Ehm, would it be too forward of me to ask if you wanted to grab a coffee sometime?” Steve asked, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

This god-like man wanted to take Bucky out on a date? The same Bucky who was currently wearing his old jeans, a very un-flattering hoodie and his hair, which was kind of greasy since he forgot to shower yesterday, on a date?

Steve’s face began to fall. 

“Oh, jeez, I’m sorry I think I read the situation wro-,”  
“I’d love to. Like, really love to,”

Steve grinned.  
“Just to make sure, you know I’m talking about, like, a date?”

“Yeah. Yes.”

“Ooookay ehm can I get your number? So I can text you about it?”

“Definitely,” Bucky said.

“Cool. Great. Yeah, that’s cool. We can talk about art and….stuff,” Steve said, while Bucky typed his number into the man’s phone. He labeled himself as ‘the hot guy from the gallery’ before handing Steve’s phone back.

A few awkward goodbyes later, Bucky was racing over to Becca who had been silently the whole ordeal. 

“Becca, you need to tell me everything you know about art. Stop laughing! This is serious! My love life is on the line!”

In all 24 years of Bucky Barnes’ life he had only been interested in art once, and that was because of Steve Rogers.  
In the end, Steve couldn’t care less that Bucky knew nothing about it


End file.
